Recap: Sixers 86, Cavs 79

The Cavaliers came up short against the Sixers in a physical affair while Colin McGowan juggled various bootleg streams that provided all the clarity of looking through a beer bottle that’s spent several weeks in a ditch. (In other words, I caught the game in dribs and drabs and in terrible definition. I’m going to keep this one short and let you guys discuss the finer details in the comment section.) Let us recap:

–Tough night for the Cavaliers’ starting backcourt. Nothing was working for Dion Waiters—he struggled both at the rim and from distance—who finished the game with five points on 2-for-13 shooting, no assists, and three turnovers. Byron Scott stressed that he didn’t want to call Saint Weirdo’s return to Philadelphia a “homecoming” for fear of putting undue pressure on the rookie, but one wonders if Waiters was a whit too eager tonight. Kyrie Irving’s night was better in the way a broken ankle is preferable to a punctured lung. Jrue Holliday and the Sixers’ interior defenders did a great job of smothering him when he got to the rim (Philly racked up nine blocks), and Irving’s jumper was uncharacteristically poor. The young tandem also combined for eight turnovers. A night best forgotten.

–Tristan Thompson had his best game of the season. The refs allowed a lot of contact, and he used that to his advantage, throwing his weight around when guards drove into the lane. Both he and Varejao were really active on the boards (28 combined rebounds, 13 of which were offensive), which played a large part in keeping the Cavaliers in the game (they shot only 35.7%). He got a lot of garbage buckets around the rim off put-backs, which are exactly the sorts of high percentage shots you want him to take. This was the sort of game we dream up for TT in our most hopeful moments.

–Tyler Zeller was rock solid off the bench (six points, seven rebounds). Now that he’s back among the living, it’s apparent how sizable the gap between him and the Cavs other substitute big men is. I still want him to hit the weight room, but he’s a pretty good athlete for his size and has a soft touch around the basket. Keep that face intact, Tyler.

–In case you were wondering if C.J. Miles’s waking nightmare concluded tonight, it did not. He had three points on 1-for-8 shooting. He split minutes at the backup small forward spot with Omri Casspi, who was unremarkable but not necessarily bad (I mean, he hit a three and a couple free throws) in 13 minutes of floor-time.

That’s all for me. The Cavs host this same Sixers team on Wednesday. Until tomorrow, friends.

kyrie’s was showing off his handle tonight as he was trying to break away from holiday, just couldn’t get many layups to fall down the stretch.

i love alonzo gee, absolutely outplaying his contract.

tristan was grabbing everything, but he really needs to learn how to not get blocked on his put-backs. i’m also not very familiar with the offensive 3 seconds rule after grabbing a rebound, but he’s standing down there, hunched over, trying to pump fake people off of his back forever.

Dion follows up what I thought was his BEST overall game with maybe his worst. Oh and I know he’s a rookie and TT is just a 2nd year pro but my god, they CANNOT buy a call!! It’s becoming silly. I get that TT gets his shit blocked a lit and the refs are not inclined to help him out but he is getting mugged time and time again! Dion is just it gonna get a call cuz he’s a rook. I get that…

Kevin should really point out, next time he’s writing, about how really good the starters are playing according to his favorite metric (kiddin!) of plus/minus. It was top 3, last I checked. So we should all take a deep breath and consider that the bench is likely to get decent soon and the wins should follow. We really do have some damn good starters. That fact should remain paramount in our minds….

Kj,
You must have missed my recap of Saturday’s game. I mentioned the starter’s plus/minus. I even broke out some regularized-adjusted-plus-minus. I was going all-in there.

Mallory,
In general, I don’t think the Cavs run a very smooth offense. Kyrie stops the ball, Dion stops the ball, Gee stops the ball, Tristan is not an accomplished passer. This needs to (and should) improve as the team grows together. Last night was the first Cavs game of the season I didn’t watch (cable package doesn’t have NBA TV). I watched the Lakers – Rockets game instead (fortunately?). The two teams combined for 227 points. The Rockets move the ball around well, and the Lakers were a juggernaut. Rockets had thirty assists and frequently the ball rapidly moved around their offensive sets. Hopefully on days off, the Cavs are watching the league’s best teams and the way they play, both on offense and defense. Before last night, Cavs rank 23rd for percentage of field goals that are assisted and 26th for percentage of possessions that include an assist. Hopefully within a couple of years, both of those numbers move into the league’s top half.

Our bench this year is absolutely horrifying. I know we have got to be patient, but it’s abysmal to have to sit through another 20-62ish year. Three straight years of absolute losing. TT seems like a more ambitious JJ. Kyrie, no matter how brilliant he is, is still undersized and I worry he will deteriorate ala D Rose. AV makes everything easier for Kyrie, but it seems like that two man game causes Dion to care about nothing more than being open after the pick and roll is complete. Dion needs to know when to surrender his jump shot and instead play some tough D. I don’t like the idea of him firing away like he’s got a blank check. Look at Tyreke Evans. Rookie of the Year, true…but a winner?

C.J. needs confidence. Byron either needs to tell him that he’ll be getting 30 minutes of PT every night and not worry about his performance, or he needs to be sent down to D-League and relearn what it feels like to love the game, because he looks wounded out there.

Alonzo isn’t a great finisher, but when he is getting that side screen from Andy and taking two hard dribbles on his strong hand, he can take 15 shots and it doesn’t bother me.

Dion had 3 shots at the end of a shot clock that we was forced to take. Not a good offensive game for him by any means, but his shot selection was as bad as it may seem and he was getting zero love from the refs.

In fact, our entire group was the aggressor going hard to the rim and the refs swallowed their whistles. It was REALLY bad in this game. They liked to call traveling a lot, but blatant hip-checks seemed to go unnoticed. Not cool.

Good defensive game from everyone not named Kyrie. I really hope we don’t coddle him like we did LeBron. He flat-out refuses to recapture his man after a pick and roll and it kills us. He just jogs back. Doesn’t switch, doesn’t hustle back, just lazily jogs toward the play from behind. It is unacceptable.

Horrible schedule to start. Still think our team will be around .500 when all is said and done this season. We really missed Boobie.

@ P.D. Parr A harder working JJ Hickson would have been a star, a player breaking down like Rose did is always a possibility for any player so that is irrelevant. Anderson Varejao is doing his job. I agree with you on CJ Miles either cut his minutes HARD or just leave him out there the whole game until he learns to play basketball again.

“Good defensive game from everyone not named Kyrie. I really hope we don’t coddle him like we did LeBron. He flat-out refuses to recapture his man after a pick and roll and it kills us. He just jogs back. Doesn’t switch, doesn’t hustle back, just lazily jogs toward the play from behind. It is unacceptable.” +1 for Ben

That play where he tried to hound the defensive rebound (along with two other Cavs) then never got back on D past the circle, jogging back, and (his man) Jrue Holiday hit a wide open three? That was awesome.

I wonder if Chris Grant and Byron have given some thought to hiring Eric Snow as a coach/consultant for Dion and Kyrie on defense. As I remember, he was a very strong defender and if he’d had even a modicum of their offensive skill he would have been a true beast. If he could pass along some veteran wisdom and work with them on becoming really good defenders, it could be an interesting play, and no offense to him, but I think he’d do a better job at that than the tv stuff he’s been doing. I’ve only seem him a couple times, but he always seems a little bit out of his element in front of a camera.

@J Hill: Thanks for the comment. You’re right, it is irrelevent about Kyrie breaking down like D Rose, but I can’t help but wonder if he got a bit more help and wouldn’t have to carry the load so much that he would be healthier. Like this broken finger injury…they’re on a protection plan with him. The kid is fragile and the only way we win games this year is with him 100% committed, and I just don’t see that happening. He’s waiting for Grant and Gilbert to start making moves, but…well, we have absolutely nothing to give except unproven injury-prone rookies and AV.

The Lineup: (Click for Author’s Archive)

Nate Smith is an Associate Editor. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and moved to NE Ohio in 2000. He adopted the Cavs in 2003 and graduated from Kent State in 2009 with a BA in English. He can be contacted at oldseaminer@gmail.com or @oldseaminer on Twitter.

Tom Pestak is an Associate Editor. He's from the west side of Cleveland and lives and (mostly) dies by the success and (mostly) failures of his beloved teams. You can watch his fanaticism during Cavs games @tompestak.

Robert Attenweiler is a Staff Writer. Originally from OH, he's long made his home in NYC where he writes plays and screenplays (www.disgracedproductions.com) some of which end up being about Ohio, basketball or both. He has also written for The Classical and the blog Raising the Cadavalier. You can contact him at rattenweiler@gmail.com or @cadavalier.

Benjamin Werth is a Staff Writer. He was born in Cleveland and raised in Mentor, OH. He now lives in Germany where he is an opera singer and actor. He can be reached at blfwerth@gmail.com.

Cory Hughey is a Staff Writer. He grew up in Youngstown, the Gary, Indiana of Ohio. He graduated from Youngstown State in 2008 with a worthless telecommunications degree. He can be contacted at theleperfromwatts@yahoo.com or @coryhughey on Twitter.

David Wood is our Links Editor. He is a 2012 Graduate of Syracuse University with an English degree who loves bikes, beer, basketball, writing, and Rimbaud. He can be reached on Twitter: @nothingwood.

Mallory Factor is the voice of Cavs: The Podcast. By day Mallory works in fundraising and by night he runs a music business company. To see his music endeavors check out www.fivetracks.com. Hit him up at Malloryfactorii@gmail.com or @Malfii.

John Krolik is the Editor Emeritus of Cavs: The Blog. At present, he is pursuing a law degree at Tulane University. You can contact him at johnkrolik@gmail.com or @johnkrolik.

Follow Me On Twitter

General NBA

Other Places To Find My Work

The Comment Monster

A monster lives in the comments section of Cavs: The Blog, and he likes to feed on comments. We have very little idea about when he will strike. What we do know is that comments with 2 or more links will get filed into the spam folder, as will comments with foul or discriminatory language. The comment monster also seems to enjoy extra-long comments, so if you have a long comment, you may want to press copy before submitting a long comment and break it into multiple pieces if the monster eats it. If you are having particular trouble with the monster, email one of us and we will talk to him for you.